The unveiling of the annual political holiday card

Kitty Felde

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There’s a joke in Los Angeles that everyone’s holiday card includes a picture of themselves with Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, a man who seems to have posed with the entire population of the city. Even radio station KNX has a shot of His Honor with their holiday ficus tree. Democratic Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez has a holiday card tradition of her own. But something is missing this year.

Washington is a pretty uptight town. And Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez’s tongue-in-cheek pictures of herself with her cat, Gretzky, on a motorcycle or wearing a hockey mask have been viewed with a bit of snobby amusement. Nonetheless, it’s a D.C. holiday tradition to wait to see what’s on this year’s card.

But Gretzky passed away a year ago. So the congresswoman from Anaheim did what any politician would do: She took a poll to find out what folks wanted on this year’s card. Sanchez says the answer was universal: People said they want tradition. We’re like, well, what does that mean?" Sanchez says what they meant was “we want Gretzky. We want Gretzky, we want Gretzky, we want Gretzky!”

And so, this year, the congresswoman posed in front of a Christmas tree with her new husband Jack. And all the ornaments on the tree bear the likeness of the furry white cat everybody loves.